How to Decide Upon an Appropriate Post-Operative Dressing: 2022

In the current era, there are numerous advanced postoperative dressings. The ideal postoperative dressing is one that is thought to improve patient comfort, manage postoperative drainage, potentially allow for visualization of the wound, improve postoperative healing, and possibly reduce bacterial invasion. However, many advanced surgical dressings have shown increased ease of handling and increased patient comfort, but have not shown true superiority with regard to objective criteria. To ease the overall evaluation of such products, we have categorized them as standard of care dressings, engineered dressings, antimicrobial engineered dressings, skin glues and adhesives, and closed incisional negative pressure wound therapy. Among these categories, closed incisional negative pressure wound therapy has repeatedly shown superior subjective and objective outcomes. However, due to cost constraints, this therapy is not ideal for everyone. In many cases, the postoperative dressing should be dictated by the type of surgery, the location of the surgery, and the comorbidities of the patient. The authors will review the appropriate indications for the use of all categories of postoperative dressing and identify specific items that have shown great promise. The current guidelines will also be reviewed.